AlyssaRalph walked a lot like the military men back in the North.I felt like a shadow as I fluttered behind him in the hallways, hoping to strike up a conversation. It had been a horrid night, and I would have delighted in a little small talk.But Ralph didn’t seem the type of man to enjoy talk at all. He was perhaps the largest wolf I’d ever met, stoic and brawny. Built like a fighter with eyes made for war. And quiet. Quiet as a still day.I quite…liked that.As he strode ahead of me, I fluttered around him, hoping to get his attention. “Perhaps it was a bad idea to leave them in my room,” I said, smirking wryly. “I will have to make sure the servants clean my sheets in the morning.”Ralph shot me a look. One singed with discomfort. It was clear he wasn’t used to seeing Xavier in love anymore than I was.“It is nice, though. Isn’t it?” I asked him, blush swelling to my cheeks. “To think that men like him still exist. Men that only want one woman and no one else.”Ralph looked at m
Valerie The next day, I woke in Xavier’s arms. He was warm as a hearth, his broad arms wrapping me like a blanket. I had only realized I was still naked when he began to stir and detach from me, and the cold invaded the heat where he had been. Flushing, I quickly covered with the sheets before he woke. It started with the flutter of his dark lashes. Then his eyes cracked open, taking in the golden dawn. He groaned as he sat up, raking a large hand through his hair. Then he looked at me and his reality seemed to sink in. At first, I thought he would regret what had happened. He seemed confused and groggy. But once he remembered all that had happened, a fond smile found him and he leaned in and pressed his lips to my cheek. The warmth that bloomed in my chest was like a sunrise. It cast everything in sparkling, beautiful gold. “You look lovely in the mornings,” he said into my ear. Then he found my lips and kissed me softly. I melted into him, allowing every little touch to linge
Valerie The dinner did not last long. Alyssa did not have more than a few bites of food as she spoke politely to the merchants and Caeser himself. She sounded natural—elated, even, to be in their presence. She was good at holding back her fears and feigning a proper, social princess. But I was not so good at charades. The entirety of dinner, I stood behind her chair, waiting for my breathing to slow. Gripping the wood of the chair so my hands did not tremble. The moment we returned to Alyssa’s room, she shut the door at her back and looked at me. “Valerie, what was that? What happened?” I felt my throat closing up. My chest tightened around my ribs. “W-what? What do you mean?” “What do you mean what do I mean?” Alyssa balked. “You were so pale and I could feel you shaking behind me. What’s going on with you?” I hesitated. I wanted to tell Alyssa, but—was that the right thing to do? We were hardly friends, and my secrets were not precious things to her. If Caeser really was the m
Valerie I waited until the next day, then I went seeking Xavier. It was much easier to look around for him now that my status as a maid was well known. I was the Princess’s handmaid—and as the others had made it sound, the title was one of prestige among the servants. Since the day she had selected me from the line of girls, I was allowed to pace the halls alone without question from the guards. And my fears of being attacked at any given moment lessened. It seemed they knew that if the princess’s chosen maid was harmed in any way, they would be punished harshly for their crimes. Not that I cared anymore. My old fears were so far away from me. Now I was only afraid of one thing. Xavier. I braved myself as I stood outside his door, trying to stitch up the stinging hole in my heart. Trying to map out the words I would say to him in my head. Every time I managed to form something coherent, it slipped right from my mind. I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t grasp onto the words and weave
Xavier Valerie was right. I had chosen her from the beginning, not only because of her birthmark, but because she was from Westshield. I knew of my father’s sins in Westshield. How he destroyed everything the night of the raid. I remembered that night clearly, because it was the night mother died. But I did not know that her family was caught in the crossfire. That it was Caeser’s plight on Westshield that had turned her into a slave. That had put her in that damned shop. That had stolen away her innocence. I knew only that she was a Westshield survivor. I knew how rare survivors were. And when I saw Valerie in the shop, I just…couldn’t leave her behind. She represented everything that was wrong with this world, and all my father had done. And freeing her from that place felt like…redemption. It was not as though I left my father’s sins overlooked. When the time came that I took my throne as Alpha, I used my power to look into what happened the night of the raid. To understand wh
ValerieI ran from Xavier’s study as fast as my legs would take me. I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t look into his eyes anymore and see the sorrow in him. The sorrow in my own reflection.I could not do it.I returned to Alyssa’s room, my mind a blur, my lungs heavy from the long run through the winding palace halls. Chills crawled over my flesh like goosebumps, and I could not settle the sick feeling in my stomach.I threw open her door, tears stuck to my lashes and blurring my vision. Alyssa was on her bed, delicately brushing through her golden locks with a wooden comb. She paused and looked up when she saw me. “It’s him,” I blurted, before she could even ask. “I’m certain it’s him. It’s Caeser who killed my parents.”Alyssa set down her brush and stood, a stony, serious look on her face. “What are you going to do?”I didn’t have an answer. What would I do? Perhaps Caeser was not an Alpha anymore, but he was still a man of high caliber. A man of royalty and reputation. I couldn’t po
Alyssa Mistress Amelia led me to the back of the mansion, where a lovely table had been set out in the center of a vibrant garden. I was not the only guest, it appeared; several other young ladies dressed in lush gowns and laughed easily with one another, the gentle clatter of teacups in the air. “Girls,” said Mistress Amelia, waving a hand to me. “Princess Alyssa has arrived. Princess, this is Claudia, Janice, Tulip and Milly.” The girls waved giddily at me. They all looked so cheerful, so easy to get along with. They waved me to their table and nearly dragged me into a seat, desperate to learn about me. To know what it was to be a princess. I did not have much experience with girls my age. My father never cared to allow the exploration of friendship among the nobles. I was only allowed to socialize with the children of his business partners, who were usually far older than me and far less interested in the things I enjoyed. But I found it easy to talk to these girl, and I fell
Valerie I woke in a damp, dark place, a cold wall at my back. For a moment, I wondered if I was still back in the Cell. If the last several years of my life had simply been a dream, and I had never left the confines of this cramped prison. But even The Cell was in better condition than whatever this hellish dungeon was. I sat in a puddle of wet, something damp dripping from the ceiling above and landing on the nape of my neck. It was too dark to make out the details of my confinement, but I immediately found several others, sitting in the darkness. Someone to either side of me, and a handful across the room, rested against the walls. Humans. Tied up, just like me. I turned to my right, where a boy sat, slouched forward in a miserable position. His eyes were closed, but there was no way he was asleep. It would have been impossible to get any rest with the way he was sitting. “Excuse me,” I whispered, nudging him with my shoulder. “Sir? Where are we?” He did not answer. He did not
VALERIE Xavier led us to the sentry post before the sun had fully risen in the sky. The horizon was a brilliant lavender, the air crisp and chilly. There were no guards around, and carnage spilled upon the grass. Blood, fur, weapons and signs of struggle in the dirt. I supposed there would be a lot of violence from this moment forward. That this would not be the last puddle of blood I saw. I just hoped, with all my heart, that none of it would belong to Xavier. Distantly, Lucas stood beside the cab of a black sedan, patiently staring down the sunrise. We had but a moment to say our goodbyes, and I was afraid to start. The sooner I began, the sooner it would be over with. And I might never see Xavier again. When the time came, when I heard his voice whisper my name, “Valerie.” I did not hesitate. I threw my arms around Xavier and clutched onto him with all the strength in me. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave him here, but I knew I would only be a liability. Besides, h
XAVIERI watched Valerie’s sleeping face, her cheeks peppered pink from the warmth of the bed. My body was still on fire, long after the crisp of night swept into the old house and flushed out all the heat.The mark on Valerie’s neck glowed, red and angry in the dim light of an impending dawn. One single bite, not deep enough to break flesh, but deep enough to bruise it. Deep enough to leave the impression of every tooth. Beneath it, the soft red petals of kiss-marks peppered down her body, vanishing beneath the blankets. I shouldn’t have given in to my desires; she needed her rest, and I needed my focus. But I did not expect the way my body would react once I was biting down on her elegant neck.And I did not expect the way her body reacted to my bite. How potent her pheromones became once she was marked.I was not strong enough to deny her after that.I had kissed every inch of her until she begged me to take her, and I could not remember much else beyond the sound of her cry in the
VALERIE “What do you mean?” The fear and anger clenched so tightly in my chest, it felt like a rib would break. Stay? He was all I had and now we were being separated? I had just lost Ava. I was going to lose Xavier, too? “You can’t stay! I don’t want to leave you!” Tears pricked at my eyes—tears of rage this time. Not anger, not pain. Rage. Because it was just so unfair. After everything, it was just so unfair to lose them both. “No! I just lost Ava, I won’t lose you too!” Again, he kissed me, and again I could do nothing but kiss him back. It was the feeling of air in your lungs after a long time under water, and I loved breathing Xavier in. I loved the sweet warmth of his kiss, the softness of his lips. But I hated the way it quenched the fire in me. The way I felt…a little less angry. “Lucas will protect you,” he said as we broke apart, gently leaning his forehead against mine. I could hardly breathe. The tears burned like acid on my cheeks. I shook my head, pulling away f
VALERIE I woke in a faint mist. There was nothing around me but white. And in the distance, four shapes were coming closer, breaking through the tiffany clouds. Somehow, I knew I was meant to be with them. I trudged through the fog, my feet taking into a run as the shapes of them began to appear in the mist. My parents. Mathilda. Ava. They smiled, their arms extended, waiting for me to walk right into them. But I could not reach. It seemed no matter how far I ran, I could not get any closer to them. They grew further and further away, and then they disappeared entirely. They disappeared into the fog, like shapes erased from paper. “Wait!” I cried out. “Wait for me!” But they were gone. And I was alone, in that white, empty world. I crumbled to my knees and cried. “I don’t want to be alone. Don’t leave me alone.” Then I felt something with in me. A warmth. You are not alone, that familiar voice said. I ignored her, sobbing into my knees instead. I had been so close to them
VALERIE The room was suddenly electric. The look Caeser had given me did not settle. Rather, it curdled in my stomach like bad food. Suddenly, I was no longer hungry. The music had stopped playing, and the crowd had gone quiet, confused by the confrontation between son and father. But Xavier looked as composed as always. “If you would not mind taking a seat, father,” Xavier began. “I have more details to—“ Suddenly, a sound like thunder rolled through the entrance of the banquet hall. The tables turned their attention to the entrance door, where a guard stumbled inside. Something was terribly wrong with him, by the look of it. His eyes were glazed and distant, his lips turning blue. He stumbled in on weak legs and collapsed to the floor, veins scrawling up the side of his neck. Several guests leapt from their seats in fear. “What is going on?” a woman exclaimed. The man beside her stepped closer, crouching as if preparing to shift. Others joined him, taking a defensive stance am
VALERIE It was late into the evening when the guests began to make their way to the palace in hordes. I had been watching out the window when a gentle rapping came at my door. A guard stepped inside and bowed. “I have been instructed by Princess Alyssa to retrieve you for the banquet. Might you dress in something…a little more appropriate for the occasion?” I felt something light inside of me at the invitation. It wasn’t that I was necessarily excited for the banquet, but it gave me an opportunity to see Alyssa. And Xavier. I had been locked in my chamber for days now, waiting for Ava to recover from her…recent events. But I did not want to leave her be. Especially after what had occurred with the guards. I turned to look at her. She seemed…relatively normal today. Perhaps it wasn’t hurting anyone if I escaped for an hour or two. “Go ahead,” Ava said with a smile. “I’ll be here waiting for you.” I nodded to her and dressed quickly in the finest thing I owned—a gown gifted to m
XAVIER After my conversation with Lucas, I sat in silence for a long while. I was in an agonizing pull of pressure—one side mulling over the idea of telling Valerie the truth, the other considering a world where I ran away with her. Of course, this couldn’t happen. But it did bring me a moment of ease to imagine. No more chaos. No more responsibility. Just the two of us, running from this face as fast as our legs would take us. But that was a dream. Not the reality that spilled out in front of me. The truth was, I was casting her out of Orheroad, whether she liked it or not. I had no other option. And she would not be happy about this. But she would be okay. And that was enough. Eventually, my silent thinking came to an end when a knock rapped on the door. Before I would rise to answer it, Ralph entered with the injured guard from yesterday. As most wolves do, he had recovered quickly. “Sir,” the guard said, drawing down in a slight, pained bow. I waved a hand to ward off the f
XAVIER I stared at the phone for much too long. The small device—one of only a few left in the entire world—sitting in inanimate silence, and somehow still mocking me. It took all I had to reach for it, and even once I’d done that, I could not bring myself to pick it up. After several beats of hesitation, I lifted it in my hands and dialed the number to Saelmere Castle. It rang once. Twice. Three times. Then he answered. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the long lost prince. What is it? Did you miss me too terribly?” At first, Lucas sounded joyful—maybe even a little humorous. And then suddenly, his tone dropped. All the smile fell from his voice and he grumbled lowly into the line, “I must say, It is about damned time.” I frowned at the sound of Lucas’s droll, irritable tone. After the security over the city was reinforced, no one had been able to call in or out. I wasn’t sure how many times Lucas had made the attempt, but by the sound of his hard-edged voice, he was angry. Whic
VALERIE The longer I stayed with Ava, the more obvious it became that she wasn’t the same as she used to be. Every time we spoke, she was becoming more of a stranger. Less of Ava. She seemed to have forgotten most of the time we’d spent together in the shop. Vague things came back to her now and then—the day her master purchased her. The view of the market district from the pane glass windows. But not much else. And though she remembered who I was, she didn’t remember Aunt Louise and Aunt Rita. She couldn’t name a single girl from the shop, and she didn’t seem to recall the talks we used to have, either. I didn’t sleep well that night. I dreamed instead…the strangest dreams. I dreamed of wild, vivid forests and the air billowing against my skin. I dreamed of running and running until my feet lost all feeling. I did not know why I dreamed such strange things, but I didn’t mind it either. I could taste the earthy scent of the forest around me. I could feel my heart thundering in my ch